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Andy Behrens

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Andy Behrens is the editor of Roto Arcade, the Yahoo! Sports fantasy blog. Andy has been writing about fantasy sports for the past decade and playing them much longer. He's won his share of experts leagues and accuracy titles. He's also the author of three novels for young readers. He also consistently beats the Evans-Pianowski team in barroom shuffleboard, no matter who he's paired with.

Arizona closed the 2013 season with wins in seven of nine games, including a 40-11 evisceration of the Colts and a 17-10 victory at Seattle. The team averaged 27.3 points per game during that stretch, while the defense allowed just 18.1. The Cardinals run D was the stingiest in the league (84.4 YPG). Honestly, by the end of the year, Arizona was probably one of the NFL's top-5 teams.

Unfortunately for the Cards, they were still no better than the third-best team in the NFC West. So, despite finishing with a 10-6 record, Arizona missed the postseason for a fourth consecutive year. Life ain't easy in the league's toughest division. Nonetheless, expectations are understandably high for the year ahead. Don't be surprised if this team is playing meaningful football games in January, 2015.

After a shockingly poor season, notable for injuries and endless pick-sixes, regime change has come to Houston. Veteran quarterback Matt Schaub played his way out of town, and veteran head coach Gary Kubiak couldn't cling to his job during a two-win campaign. This season, Ryan Fitzpatrick will be at the controls of Bill O'Brien's offense. The Texans aren't likely to light up scoreboards in 2014, but the team might just be good enough on defense to reach eight wins regardless.

Of course we don't actually care about real-life winning and losing around here. In this space, we're primarily concerned with individual fantasy potential. Houston has a pair of consensus top-50 players — the usual suspects, Arian and Andre — but no one else on this roster projects as a must-own fantasy asset, aside from the D/ST.

When last we saw the Chiefs, they were squandering a 28-point second-half lead at Indianapolis in the wild-card round. All-Pro running back Jamaal Charles was concussed, as was Pro-Bowl corner Brandon Flowers. And so was starting receiver Donnie Avery. Pro-Bowl linebacker Justin Houston had a knee injury, and Charles' backup, Knile Davis, had a broken leg.

So that was a long, ugly afternoon for Kansas City. But let's remember that it was just one day in an otherwise astonishing turnaround season. Andy Reid, in his first year as Chiefs head coach, engineered an all-phases franchise revival. Kansas City was a two-win team in 2012, ranking dead-last in the NFL in point differential (-214) and turnover differential (-24). Under Reid in 2013, this team won 11 games and outscored its opponents 430 to 305. The Chiefs sent eight players to the Pro Bowl last year, qualifying for the playoffs for only the second time in seven seasons.

Soon after, longtime offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride stepped down. Within two weeks, he was replaced by former Green Bay assistant Ben McAdoo. Free agent receiver Hakeem Nicks left for Indianapolis, signing a low-dollar one-year deal following a remarkably poor final season in New York. Running back Andre Brown moved on, as did tight end Brandon Myers. The Giants are also rebuilding an offensive line that did nothing well a year ago — the new line is still a big question mark, but at least it's not the old line.

One fixture that remains, of course, is quarterback Eli Manning, an accomplished player coming off the worst season of his career. In fact, Eli's 2013 would have been the worst season of almost any quarterback's career — it was a turnover-filled disaster. He threw three or more interceptions in five different games, ultimately finishing with

Life in the NFC West ain't easy, not with three of the NFL's top six defenses lurking. But the Rams' schedule in the year ahead isn't actually as nightmarish as you might expect, at least for fantasy purposes. This team's non-division opponents include a half-dozen squads that ranked in the bottom-third of the league defensively last season, including Dallas (dead-last) and Minnesota (next-to-last). Fantasy owners will also appreciate the fact that St. Louis doesn't travel to Seattle until Week 17, after most league titles are decided.

So if you're bullish on this franchise for 2014, it's understandable. The Rams fortified both the offensive and defensive lines with high-end talent in the draft, plus the team has depth at the skill spots. If quarterback Sam Bradford can simply play at the level at which he opened 2013, prior to his ACL injury, then St. Louis should contend for ... well, something. Probably not a division title. But something better than the usual sub-.500 season.

Everything in Tampa Bay is new this season — new quarterback, new coordinators, new head coach.

However, everything new in Tampa this season is also kinda old. Quarterback Josh McCown is 35, joining his eighth NFL team. Coordinators Jeff Tedford (OC) and Leslie Frazier (DC) were plucked from the discard pile, each fired from prominent head coaching positions in recent seasons. And, of course, head coach Lovie Smith spent nine years in Chicago, compiling a career record of 81-63, yet failing to reach the playoffs in any of his final three seasons.

So this franchise has hit the reset button once again, in a responsible if less-than-exciting way. Still, Greg Schiano's reign of terror has ended. His departure is a victory for us all.

In McCown, the Bucs have added a QB with a long track record of mediocrity, punctuated by a half-season of excellence. He clearly benefited from working with uncoverable receivers in Chicago, but he also

The Buffalo Bills played at a blistering pace in 2013, their first season under head coach Doug Marrone. This team's offense ranked third in the NFL in total plays-per-game, behind just Denver and New England, and it trailed only Philadelphia in time-per-play.

Unfortunately, the Bills did not mimic those three squads in any other meaningful way. As a team, Buffalo finished 22nd in the league in scoring (21.2 PPG), 29th in yards-per-play (4.8), 28th in passing (210.8 YPG), 28th in time-of-possession (28:34) and 29th in third-down conversion rate (34.3).

Essentially, the Bills ran a hurry-up-and-punt attack — not exactly the traditional recipe for success in the NFL.

But we can't accuse this team of failing to recognize and address its weaknesses on offense. Back in May, Buffalo traded up from the ninth overall draft pick to the fourth (giving up next year's first-rounder in the process), a deal that allowed the team to select Clemson

Milwaukee Brewers prospect Jimmy Nelson hasn't allowed a run, earned or unearned, in any of his last three starts for Triple-A Nashville, and his year-to-date minor league numbers are silly: 10-2, 1.46 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 9.5 K/9. On Saturday, Nelson will bring his scoreless innings streak with him to Miller Park for a degree-of-difficulty start against the Cardinals. Marco Estrada has been exiled to the bullpen.

If you can find a use for a National League starter with swing-and-miss stuff and the backing of a quality lineup, give Nelson a look. He's a gigantic right-hander (6-foot-6, 240-ish) who features a tailing, mid-90s fastball and terrific slider. In case you missed his work for Milwaukee earlier in the year, check the tape. It ain't bad.

Nelson's re-arrival is well-timed for the fantasy community, because an A.L. ace hit the DL on Thursday...

• Masahiro Tanaka had been rolling until very recently, posting a 12-4 record and 1.01 WHIP over the first-half of the season, piling up Ks

Coming off a Super Bowl season, Baltimore's offense was a cruel joke in 2013. The running game averaged just 3.1 yards per carry, ranking dead-last in the NFL. Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce had a combined 366 carries, only three of which gained 20-plus yards. Quarterback Joe Flacco threw 22 interceptions, the highest total in the AFC, and he passed for a career-low 6.4 yards per attempt. He was also sacked 48 times, the second-highest total in the league.

It was ugly, almost always. The nicest thing we can say about the Ravens last season from a fantasy perspective is that kicker Justin Tucker had a really, really good year — or at least it was going well until he posted a zero in Week 16, when you needed him most.

We can't claim that Baltimore has remained idle this offseason, however. Gary Kubiak was hired as the new OC, bringing with him a playbook that relies on West Coast principles, bootlegs, play-action, and a zone-blocking

The Saves Index is a ranking of the top 50 relievers, based solely on their potential to earn saves from the present through the remainder of the season. In a case where two relievers have similar saves potential, the additional standard roto categories will be used to differentiate them.